History 



f hunbcrg, 



Willrmet. 



Tlmars. 



In North. 

 rn Africa 



M * "V^ ^ 



brated Charles Peter Thunbcrg, knight of the order 

 t Vasa, a pupil of Linntuu, and successor to his son 

 IN the botanical chair at Upsal ; and of the late Fran- 

 Hanon, a native of this country, who, from the 

 le condition of a gardener, raised himself to a 

 good deal of eminence as a botanist, and was repeat- 

 diy sent to the warmer climates for the purpose of 

 ranking discoveries. 



Thunbcrg resided at the Cape from the year 177? 

 to the year 1775 ; during which time he collected in 

 us botaincal .surveys a great many rare plants, which 

 he has described with all that felicity of discrimina- 

 > and language for which he is so remarkable, in 

 a work entitled; Pndrmiuu Plantarum Capensium 

 ?** rromotttono bonce spei Af rices, annis 1772 

 1775, colleeit C.P. Tboabtrg. The first part of 

 this valuable work appeared at Upsal in the year 

 1 / J*, in Svo, and the second in the year 1800 



Masson, on the other hand, besides spending two 

 years and a half at the Cape, about the same time 

 *ttn Thunberg, in collecting plants at the ex pence, 

 and under the patronage, of hi, present Majesty for 

 the royal gardens at Kew, was sent back in 1786- 

 [ in the course often years more, which he dcvol 

 d with much zeal to the purpose of visiting the in- 

 tenor parts of South Africa, and of cultivating in 

 is garden at Cape Town such plants as he had not 

 otherwise an opportunity of examining accurately, 

 he succeeded ,n making a great many discoveries. A 

 small work containing part of these was published in 

 1795, unaer the title of Stapclia Nova 



We may observe farther, in connection with what 

 has been said as to South Africa, that P,ter Remi 

 Willemet, a Frenchman, who resided some time T, 

 e Mauritius, andjdied at Seringapatam in 1790, wrote 

 the Herbarium Mauritian, published in Usteri's 

 Annals, a few years ago : And that Aubert du Pe- 

 t rhuars, another botanist of the same nation, has 

 lately favoured the world with a valuable work < 

 trie plants of NiadatraRrnr nnd /-*f t-V, - i r i- 



i o > nu or tne isles of Franrp 



and Bourbon. 



I he indigenous botany of Northern Afrl^-o ..T, 



othpr Inn^ K L "ruiern Africa, on the 



hand, though not perhaps cultivated to the 



same extent, or with the same degree of ardour a! 



ha t now mentioned, has not been "allowed to remain 



unattended to. For to say nothing of the meritori" 



ous zeal of some, who have furnifhed us wk de." 



p^arCpeter Forskal^Se ^ N rth AW ^ 



guishcd of those unfortunate uaturahsU^nd men' of 

 Science, who were sent by the late king o f Denmark 



nd m th'"' mV] Ti- ' UmSeif Chiefl r " 8 SS 

 in the course of his travels through Emmt. and 



n o T A N v. 



rum tam earnm, quas in itincrc, imprimis oriental! 

 collet I'rtrus Forskal, qnnrn aliarum, recently de- 

 tctarwm, tinctures detcrtptimet, nee non obscna- 

 ttonet circa quasdam phmtat dudum cognitas. 



Vahl has likewise contributed still more directly 

 to advance our acquaintance with the flora of North 

 Africa : for this very able and distinguished bota- 

 ist, who is still alive, travelled widely, at a former 

 period of his life, through that country, as well as 

 nrough the southern provinces of Europe, and made 

 various important discoveries, which he has commu- 

 iicated, along with those of Forskal and others, in 

 s Symbols Bntanicce. Nor can we omit to men- 

 tion, with due praise, the labours of Desfontaines, 

 who has lately favoured us with an excellent account 

 of the plants which are indigenous along the rid ire 

 of Mount Atlas, in a work entitled, Flora Atlantica. 

 With respect to the flora of the western coast 

 of Africa, we have only to say, that a good deal 

 I light has been thrown upon some part of it, by 



the ntlnitcjjf-t/Tn /-if A J >_ T7 . ~ 



gt, 



Hi.tory. 



Derfo, - 

 taines. 



In Wester* 



Af ca- 



, *- try . . ^,_ .. , aj as wcu as 



>:a, where lie prematurt- ly met his fate, 

 i collectiiig a great many rare plants. 

 these, a considerable number were described bv 

 himse f; at ,d the description,, thcy had bet let 

 by h lm at his deatn were edited from his MSS. in 



* / /> nv I a !*** n XT,., I i. .. t - - 



ni.S 





^ -- 11 u^mi bumc part or it 



he publication of Adanson's Voyage to Sen^al, 

 and the first volume of a splendid work in folio 

 which is now publishing at Paris by Palisot de Beau- 

 vais, a French botanist, under the title of Florc 

 dOware et Benin. But with respect to that of 



ie eastern coast, and more particularly of the inte 

 nor, we may be allowed to add, that it is still en- 

 tirely unknown, except from the account which Mr 

 -Bruce, Lord Valentia, and the intrepid, but we tea- 

 unfortunate, Mr Park, have given us of a few irmdV- 

 d plants ; and a period of many years, we doubt 

 not, must yet pass away before the treasures of this 

 vast region, where the beams of a vertical sun diffuse 

 irresistible warmth, and in favourable circumstances 

 of soil and moisture, proWice often the most asto- 

 nishing effects on the powers of vegetation, can be 

 tully disclosed to us. 



In tracing the progress of discovery in Asia, it will 

 be foundthat a good deal was done towards illustrating 

 the flora of India, and particularly of those parts of it 

 which were in possession of the Dutch, by Nicholas 

 Lawrence Lurman, professor of botany at Amsterdam, 

 ready mentioned ; tor he favoured the public with 

 very excellent descriptions of many rare plants of that 

 quarter of the world, which he had an opportunity of 

 examining , his father's vast collection,;,, his Flora 

 Imiica, wh,ch came out in the year 1768. He also 

 wnstitutedseveral new genera from among them, keep, 

 ing as closely as possible, in doing so, to the manner 

 of his great master Linn^us. F?om his time down- 

 wards our knowledge of the Indian flora remained 

 g almost stationary, if we except some small acces- 

 >ns which ,t received from a Descriptive. Catalogue of 

 rare Plants tvhose Seeds ivere browht from the East 

 Indies, published by Colin Milae, m 177'} and from 

 some miscellaneous communications of Professor Rott 

 -M, and one or two others. Some very valuable single 

 :reatises were likewise communicated to the public 

 b> Jolm Gerard Koemg, a native of Courland, and 

 pupil of Lmnxus, who had long resided in the East 

 Indies, and exerted h.mself with the most surprising 

 zeal and success, , f ar as discovery was concerned^ 

 in promoting the mterests of his favourite science 

 A work with the character of which we are unac- 

 quamted, was, howerer, published by a Dutch gen- 



Adansou. 



DC Eeau- 

 va. ' 



In South- 

 ern Asia. 



N L Bur 



